Copper removal from water using carbonized sawdust

Abstract

The occurrence of heavy metals in water sources is grave worldwide concerns for many reasons, firstly because the heavy metals could remain in the water for very long periods because they cannot be degraded by the microorganisms. Secondly, the heavy metals can be accumulated in the bodies of plants and other living cells to toxic levels and could affect humans through the food chain. Finally, the contaminated water by heavy metals causes severe health problems for consumers, such as kidney and brain diseases. Therefore, the development of effective water treatment methods for remediation of water from heavy metals is a vital concern for scientists nowadays. The present work uses sawdust as a chemically activated adsorbent to remove copper. The adsorption experiments were employed in a batch system to investigate the impact of different parameters such as contact time, solution pH, and adsorbent dose. The favorable pH for maximum copper removal was at neutral. After performing the batch experiments, an optimum contact time of 150 min was adopted. The findings indicated that the sawdust dosage of 2 g/L removed about 79% from the copper concentration in the aqueous solution. Sawdust has been successfully utilized as low-cost sorbents for copper removal.